I thought it would be a nice idea to have a mini-resource of bento-friendly recipes for olives, even if they are good on their own. There are lots of different ways for prepairing olives so i thought it'd be cool so we don't get tired of them! :)

I made this yesterday after having somehow forgotten how good this tastes. To be honest, I spent half the time eating it feeling surprised that such basic ingredients can taste so good when combined like this. My husband became a big fan.

Tricky part is getting hold of some decent canned plum tomatoes - it might be worth paying a little extra for these. How many cans you'll need depends on the juice to tomato ratio. To get between 400 and 500gms (roughly 16 oz) of roughly drained plum tomatoes you may need two or even three 400gm/16 oz cans. (I used the excess tomato juice as a stock to make rice with - you could always freeze the juice for a similar use).

Ingredients:
About 450gms (16oz) of roughly drained canned plum tomatoes, cut these into pieces
1 small onion (I used a very large shallot), sliced
1 can of drained tuna, flaked
handful of sliced olives (traditionally black olives, but I had green ones and they work too)
1 cooled hard boiled egg, chopped
sea salt to taste (I suggest a teaspoon)
a few generous glugs of good olive oil

Stir all the ingredients except for the sliced egg together and keep refrigerated. Add the egg just before serving.

This salad is very wet and is fantastic mopped up with good quality crusty bread.

I have to admit that the idea of eating raw tomatoes from a can was so unappealing to me that I avoided even trying this Murcian dish for years. When I did grow up a bit, braved a taste and realised how nice it is, I assumed it was due to the cooks' skill and the awesome local Murcian produce. Here's the embarrassing part: I only swallowed down my deep rooted prejudice against uncooked tinned tomatoes yesterday at my husband's request and made it myself for the first time. I feel rather stupid for not having done so before... it's really good!

Blue cheese stuffed olives are horrible. When bought that way, I mean. I like both olives and blue cheese, and they are yummy together, but either they use really crappy cheese to stuff them with or just sitting in the jar does something to them. I'd definitely stuff my own if I wanted some.

Olives are good baked into bread. Also in couscous salad with fetta, onion, pepper, lemon juice, and some spices. Apparently I was about 5 when I decided my favourite food was an olive wrapped in a bazil leaf. My favourite food has changed over the past 13 years, but it's still makes great bento fillers.